What can you do?

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one little boy

alone in an alley

unknown

a little girl

on the other side of town

unforgotten

two children

with no families

unloved

no friends

to stay with

unwanted

no one to help them

through the long, cold winter

uncared-for

yet we all know

that they are there...

...unforgotten

While cleaning out a closet and going through boxes, I found an old notebook with poems that I had written in high school. The poem above was one of them, and it brought to mind a recent sermon stemming from James 1:27.

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

We know that there are orphans out there, some on the streets, some at some kind of a shelter or orphanage. Wherever they are, they are children. They may be scared. They may be lonely. The Lord has called us to care for these children. Do we? Do we care for them, with care being a verb? ...or do we pity them, pray for them, hope that "someone" does something to help them?

Isaiah 1:17 tells us to, "Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows."

How can you help? What can you do? How can you know where there are needs? These are all good questions. Doing a simple search, I found MissionFinder.org, which has a section called Opportunities for Service in Christian Orphanages. Well, look at that. There is also Orphanage.org.

If you are in the position and place in your life to give a child a loving, nurturing, happy home, then please be encouraged to consider that. If you are not in that position but have love to share and would like to do something to help, then take the initiative. Find an orphanage, contact them, and ask what you can do to volunteer or give or fulfill any needs that the children there have.

Maybe you belong to a group or a club who can get together and reach out, organize a service project, do some outreach to benefit the children and/or the people who work with them every single day.

YOU can make a difference.

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me." -Matthew 18:5